Assessing the Epigenetic Status of Human Telomeres
Abstract
:1. The Epigenetic Nature of Human Telomeres Has Remained Controversial
2. Analysis of the Epigenetic Features of Human Telomeres by Microscopy
3. The Chromatin Immunoprecipitation Technique
4. Analysis of the Epigenetic Features of Human Telomeres by ChIP-Hyb
5. Analysis of the Epigenetic Features of Human Telomeres by ChIP-Seq
6. Determining the Heterochromatic Status of Telomeres in Specific Human Cell Lines
7. Concluding Remarks
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Evidence | Ref. | |
---|---|---|
1 | Immunofluorescence microscopy studies reveal low co-localization levels of the H3K9me3 or the HP1 heterochromatic marks with telomeres, which could be explained by the presence of H3K9me3 and HP1 in subtelomeric heterochromatin. | [8,14,15,16] |
2 | ChIP-hyb experiments reveal low levels of H3K9me3 at telomeric repeats as compared with subtelomeric sequences. | [57] |
3 | ChIP-seq experiments show that telomeres are not enriched in H3K9me3 but have enhanced levels of the H3K27ac and H4K20me1 euchromatic marks. In contrast, satellites II and III are enriched in H3K9me3 but not in H3K27ac or H4K20me1. | [24,42] |
4 | Human telomeres should not be methylated because the human telomeric sequence is TTAGGG, and DNA methylation in mammals mainly circumscribe to the CG context. In agreement with this assumption, DNA methylation is completely absent from Arabidopsis telomeres. However, the Arabidopsis telomeric sequence, which is TTTAGGG, is methylated by the CHH methylation machinery (where H is A, C, or T) when it is present in interstitial telomeric sequences (ITSs). | [58,59] |
5 | Super-resolution microscopy shows that the disruption of shelterin proteins can lead to an increase in telomeres volume that has been related to telomeres decompaction and to a 53BP1-dependent telomere clustering. However, telomeres volume is not affected in human cells treated with inhibitors of heterochromatin formation. Therefore, heterochromatin does not seem to affect the protective structure of telomeres as shelterins do. | [60,61,62] |
6 | Telomeric nucleosomes are shorter and more sensitive to overall micrococcal nuclease digestion than the heterochromatic nucleosomes associated with chromocenters. | [31,63,64,65] |
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Vaquero-Sedas, M.I.; Vega-Palas, M.A. Assessing the Epigenetic Status of Human Telomeres. Cells 2019, 8, 1050. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells8091050
Vaquero-Sedas MI, Vega-Palas MA. Assessing the Epigenetic Status of Human Telomeres. Cells. 2019; 8(9):1050. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells8091050
Chicago/Turabian StyleVaquero-Sedas, María I., and Miguel A. Vega-Palas. 2019. "Assessing the Epigenetic Status of Human Telomeres" Cells 8, no. 9: 1050. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells8091050
APA StyleVaquero-Sedas, M. I., & Vega-Palas, M. A. (2019). Assessing the Epigenetic Status of Human Telomeres. Cells, 8(9), 1050. https://doi.org/10.3390/cells8091050